Tasty Pastry
144,104
TA Score for this game: 2,461
Posted on 30 March 09 at 18:38, Edited on 05 February 11 at 13:29 |
This review has 12 positive votes and 1 negative vote. Please log in to vote. |
Note - You should know how I feel about baseball games before moving on. I'm an avid baseball fan. My parents are from New York and I've lived in Wisconsin most of my life, so I'm a Yankee/Brewer fan (conveniently they are in different leagues). Therefore I've bought multiple baseball games: I have "baseball" for the Nintendo, Ken Griffey Major League Baseball for the N64, All Star Baseball for the Xbox, and some of the MLB games for the xbox 360...
That being said, after the N64 my "belief" in them working has faded. I have MLB2k6. If you bought it early you know there was a problem that made it freeze, specifically in the 7th inning. They came out with a patch for that...but it didn't work for me. Even after exchanging the disc and getting a different one.
So I got 2k7. Well it also had this problem which made it corrupt my saved data and delete my rosters. Apparently it had something to do with one of the free stadiums they released for download, but my corrupted data wouldn't let me download it.
I rented 2K8 and found the controls too difficult to win a single game.
Therefore you can understand I went into MLB2k9 with extreme reluctance.
Singleplayer - The singleplayer of the game has a very detailed gameplay. You can choose from many different modes. You can choose exhibition, season, franchise, or postseason mode to name a few if you're looking for games.
In exhibition you can just choose a team for you and the computer and play a single game. In season mode you will play through the 162 regular game season and attempt to make it to the postseason and the world series. In franchise mode you can make trades, manage finances, and grab up some free agents.
Postseason mode allows you to play one of the teams that made it to the playoffs last year (Angels, Red Sox, White Sox, Dodgers, Brewers, Phillies, Rays...). You can attempt to change history (I won the world series with my Brewers).
The gameplay is the best of both worlds from simplistic and the complexities added in from 2K8 (if you played that). You have the Swing Stick (you move the right control stick to swing), but they changed it so that you don't have to time your "step", so you can pull back the stick way before the ball comes to the plate.
The better your player is, the more likely you are to be able to hit pitches out of the strikezone, but certain players have different hot areas around their strikezone.
The pitching allows you to use the control stick to "draw" the path of the ball. Unlike in MLB2K8 you don't throw the ball away or a "fat pitch" if you don't do it perfectly, it just curves less or doesn't fly as fast.
Basestealing is my least favorite part of the game. I have around a 25% success rate at best with my fastest players. Basically if the pitcher throws a fastball, the computer is going to throw you out.
You can aim your hits to the left or right field, and you can aim the control stick to shoot for ground balls and fly balls.
There are multiple difficulties.
My personal favorite part of this game over the last game is the "living rosters". Everytime you sign onto xbox live the rosters of each team are going to update based on the disabled lists and released players, as well as trades. However, importantly, this wont affect your franchise trades or rosters. Therefore I still have Eric Gagne on my franchise roster...
They assign some sort of values to each of your pitchers pitches. However, since the game creators chose this, this might be different than how you feel...
Gagne's fastball and circle change are devastating. Jeff Suppan's 12-6 curveball is ridiculous. Which means you can win with any pitcher. I am 24-3 with Jeff Suppan in my franchise, which, if you now him, is just plain wrong.
There are some other game modes to check out (Home Run Derby) and what not, but the mini games are not what is going to make you buy this game.
The largest drawback to the single player is what has been wrong with all the MLB games...despite how realistic they are, they can get pretty boring. They can also get frustrating if the computer makes some diving catches against you.
Single Player Rating - 9/10
Multiplayer - The multiplayer has been significantly improved upon from the last games. You can still play exhibition modes against your friend. Besides that you can check out xbox live and join in on some player and ranked matches.
But there's some problems.
Since it is REALLY important when you swing (or else you miss the ball...) you'll have to configure yourself to make up for the lag. Therefore when you move back to single player you are going to have some problems getting back into it.
Also, since the lag exists, you'll have to swing early. That means you'll end up swinging at some horribly bad pitches. You can take advantage of this on the pitching mound and just throw horrible pitches almost all the time and throw basically a no hitter.
This will make a lot of people quit out of your game. Although you'll get the win (if the game is far enough), you might lose some of the fun and satisfaction.
Even though they fixed SOME of the lag problems from the older game, it isn't enough to keep you playing.
Plus the guys at the top of the ladder will take advantage of everything. There was some guy that would steal as soon as he got on base. It's too hard to get him in a pickle in comparison to him getting back to a base, so sooner or later he's going to be safe. Basically this means that a single means a homerun. Upsetting.
Multiplayer Score - 6/10
Others - The graphics in the game are supposed to be good, and they aren't bad. Prince Fielder is a big guy, looking like Prince Fielder. They actually did significant work on the crowd so that they don't look just like a blur of guys. They'll jump up and down for foul balls and will stand up if you have the bases loaded and a full count. But you're still going to see guys doing the same animation right next to each other every once in a while.
They took out some of my favorite graphics and cinematics (Bernie sliding down the slide in Miller Park for example). And when they zoom in on a player's face his eyes are always cross eyed or way up high for some reason. Despite this, some of the cinematics and graphics are exceptionally good. When Ryan Braun comes up to bat he pulls on his jersey, Craig Counsell puts his bat in the air (though in real life he doesn't anymore...), Youkillis holds the bat with those two fingers, etc...
Pitchers pitch like they do. Lincecum will look like he is "reaching for that dollar bill on the ground", and Gagne will look like he is going to fall off the mound everytime.
The sound is pretty decent. You're going to hear the sound of the ball coming off the bat and the ball hitting the gloves. There is also commentary (which is new in comparison to the older games, as in different commentators). However, after about 10 games you'll have it all memorized. Plus they really don't get excited enough about home runs, stolen bases, and walk off hits, which is a little dissapointing. They do get very excited about shutouts for some reason, but not only allowing one run through 9 innings.
The achievements are pretty great for achievement junkies. I have over 500 with limited playthrough. You're going to get achievements for things such as getting 100 strikeouts with your user profile, 50 stolen bases, etc...
There are also some other ones that are going to be a little tougher (throw a no hitter) and winning the world series. I'll be creating a guide at some point. Overall they are relatively easy. Three good features of achievements according to me...let's see if they fit.
1) Single Player completion achievements – Yes – There are plenty of these. Get 50 steals with your user profile, hit 100 home runs, win the World Series in a season mode…
2) Offline multiplayer achievements – No – There are some online multiplayer achievements (Beat someone from Team 2K, which is actually impossible so far, at least to me…). But no, no offline multiplayer achievements. And since you can boost online the achievements like pitching a no hitter or even just allowing someone to hit as many home runs as they want to add it to their profile counts. This means people will try to pair themselves in the ranked matches (which isn’t that hard) which may mean a waste of your time.
3) Achievements that make you play the game differently – Yes – Since they have achievements for completing postseason mode/completing season mode/completing home run derby you play all the different modes.
There is a good amount of DLC. Not gaming DLC though, but theme and gamer picture DLC. There is a theme for almost every team. If this is the stuff you’re into, you’re going to be happy. Since the game is only a couple months old it is understandable that they haven’t released new add-ons yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they released bonus stadiums or something like that.
Graphics - 8/10
Sound - 8/10
Acheivements - 7/10
DLC - 8/10
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Final Score - 7.6
Summary
Pros:
-Sign online and get roster updates avoids the problems of the game not having all the correct players. In recent games I’d have to “create a player” Ryan Braun to get him in. They also have some detailed info on the AAA players in case you feel like calling them up.
-Screwing up a pitch doesn’t equal a home run. They also fixed the batting style so that it isn’t impossible to ever get a hit. The pitching system will make it feel like you’re doing more than simply pressing the “A” button like you used to in older games.
-Controls are easy to change. Don’t like the swing stick? Fine, change it to an arcade “A” button swing. Don’t like the difficulty? Change in mid game. Don’t like the team you’re using? Fine, switch to the other team.
-Exceptionally Detailed Batting Stances and Pitching Styles make the game enjoyable to the knowledgeable baseball fan. Watching Ryan Braun pull on his shirt and swing the bat around just makes me happy inside. Watch Jeter mess with his gloves before the at bat.
-The announcers are new. This means you wont be quite sick of them yet when you first start playing the game as you hear some new things. I can recite some of the older phrases from other games…”He’s got some wheels!” and “Nice play by the pitcher getting over! PFP, Pitcher’s Fielding Practice!” They also made adjustments to the crowd which is a pleasant surprise.
Cons:
-Even though they made the crowd better, you’re still going to catch guys next to each other doing the same thing. The player’s faces are still kind of…pathetic. They took the time on each player’s little items, but didn’t take enough on their facial features. They should have at least taken a good amount of time on the important players (Prince Fielder, Ryan Howard, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Jose Reyes…etc.)
-It can easily get repetitive. Having 162 games to play in a season is nice and good in that you feel like you’re accomplishing something when you win, but you wont want to play more than three in a row. Often times I end up on my computer in-between innings, making a game last around an hour and a half because the game is so easy to get distracted from.
-Hefty price tag and a questionable support group might turn you off. I’ve heard numerous reports that this is the last MLB game that is going to be produced in the 2K franchise. Therefore they might just plain not care if you don’t like the game. Plus the game comes out at $60. In a year you’ll be able to get it at about $10 because it will be outdated. Your choice of course.
-Some really stupid achievements. There is one for beating a 2K member. “Fine” I thought, “they are having a community playdate soon”. I went on there. They would only play 3 innings per game. That doesn’t count. Therefore I don’t know how anyone has it (though apparently a few in the world do). When asked if they would help “spread it around” they said they were going to “sit on it for a while”. While this may not seem like such a big deal, there is a 100 point achievement for getting all the achievements. Which means that achievement translates to over 100 points.
Final Comments - I’d buy this game, if you’re a baseball fan. You might want to rent it before you buy it to see if it is the game for you (I’ve heard fans of MLB2k8 saying they hated it, and others that played it saying they loved it). If you rent it you WILL NOT be able to get through the whole season or franchise mode in the week you have.
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